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Travel

The world's most expensive desserts

After British tourists were shocked to be charged £54 for ice cream in Rome, we look at desserts around the world that are vastly more expensive. Order with caution.

Picture: Rocambolesc ice cream

Plenty of diners would baulk at paying over £20 for a dessert. The bruleed baby banana cream pie served at CUT at 45 Park Lane in London just about breaks that threshold. Made of 10-year chocolate sauce and bananas foster ice cream it costs £21 per serving. www.45parklane.com

Picture: www.45parklane.com

Dubai's Burj Al Arab is one of the most expensive hotels in the world so it's surprising that this signature dessert served in its Al Mahara restaurant doesn't feature higher up the list. The Caramelized Hazelnut Dacquoise is made of milk chocolate, chocolate mousse and bourbon ice-cream. It costs 170AED (£30). www.burjalarab.com

Picture: www.burjalarab.com

A popular dessert at Vienna's Hotel Imperial is its handmade Imperial Torte. Also a popular present, the chocolate cake keeps for weeks so guests initially defeated by its large size and rich taste can save some for later. Anyone wishing to gift it to others can send it in the custom-made wooden box shown here. It costs €48 (£41). www.imperialvienna.com

Picture: www.imperialvienna.com

The truffle ice cream served at barMasa in ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas is the creation of chef Masa Takayama. It is made of seasonal truffles and gold flakes and costs $95 (£61) per portion. www.arialasvegas.com

Picture: www.arialasvegas.com

Served by Knipschildt Chocolatier in Connecticut, La Madeline au Truffle is the most expensive chocolate in the world. It is made with 70 per cent Valrhona dark chocolate and at its core features a rare French Perigord truffle surrounded by ganache. It is served on a bed of sugar pearls in a silver box. You can have one for $250 (£160). www.knipschildt.net

Picture: www.knipschildt.net

The Ciragan Palace Kempinski Istanbul hotel's Ciragan Palace Luxury Cake is made from 70 per cent Venezuelan Grand Cru chocolate, raspberries which have been marinated for one month with Hennessy Paradis cognac, 19 carat gold leaves and a Louis Roederer champagne truffle heart. It must be ordered a day in advance and costs 1000TL (£360). www.kempinski.com

Picture: www.kempinski.com

Served in Bangkok restaurant Sirocco, the small size of the 'Oak' dessert might be a surprise to some guests ordering it, especially considering its 24,500THB (£534) price tag. The dessert, however, comes in three courses, each one pared with a rare wine or cognac. First-course dessert 'banana' is shown here; it is a mixture of banana, crumble and jelly paired with Chateau La Tour Blance, 1er Cru, 1996.

Picture: www.lebua.com/sirocco

Second-course dessert is a foie gras-based concoction with 70 per cent Amedei chocolate and blackberry; it is served with Graham's Port, Vintage 1983.

Picture: www.lebua.com/sirocco

The menu, which must be ordered 24 hours in advance, finishes with a truffle, cognac, Amedei chocolate and honey dessert served with L'Or de Martell cognac. www.lebua.com/sirocco

Picture: www.lebua.com/sirocco

Prices at Serendipity American restaurant in New York are unremarkable, except for that of its Golden Opulence Sunday. Priced at $1000 (£643), it is made with three scoops of Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream, 23-carat gold leaf, Amedei Porceleana chocolate and Chuao chocolate, gold dragets and grande passon caviar infused with fresh passion fruit. www.serendipity3.com

Picture: www.serendipity3.com

When it comes to enthusiastically priced goods Dubai always seems to deliver. The world's most expensive cupcake, named The Golden Phoenix, can be bought at Bloomsbury's cafe in The Dubai Mall - if you place your order two days in advance. It is made using 23-carat edible gold sheets and costs 3700AED (£648); 50 per cent of proceeds from the cupcake's sale go to the World Food Programme. www.ilovebloomsburys.com

Picture: www.ilovebloomsburys.com

Three Twins Ice Cream's outlet in Napa's Oxbow Public Market sells a special ice-cream sundae for $3,333.33 (£2,140). It is a banana split made with syrups from reduced rare dessert wines including a 1960s Vintage Port, a Chateau D'Yquem and a German Trockenbeerenauslese. One third of the purchase price is given to a local land trust. If it is ordered a day in advance the shop will arrange for a cellist to play while the customer eats his order. www.threetwinsicecream.com

Picture: www.threetwinsicecream.com

The most expensive dessert option on this list is the second offering from Three Twins Ice Cream. The company serves an ice cream sundae made with glacial ice from Mount Kilimanjaro. The mountain's glacier is expected to disappear within the next 10-15 years due to climate change and the trip is intended to raise awareness of the development. The ice cream sundae costs $60,000 (£38,560), which will also provide the purchaser with first-class airfare and transfers to Kilimanjaro, a guided climb of the mountain, accommodation and a five-figure donation to an African environmental non-profit. Picture: Peter Barritt / Alamy